Mr David teaches Ballet 7/CCB2 on Mondays at 4:30pm and Ballet 6 on Mondays at 6:00pm.

Here are some fun questions we asked Mr. David to get to know him a little better:

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Founding, directing and choreographing for Zikr Dance Ensemble

What is your favorite book? How about movie?

Book: Conversations with God.

Movie: The Red Shoes.

Is there a quote or saying that you live your life by?

Martha Graham: “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

Would you rather vacation in Alaska or Hawaii, and why?

Alaska – I was there just recently. There is still awesome untouched beauty.

What are your hobbies?

Graphic Design, Costuming

If you were a superhero, what would your powers be?

To always be in the moment and connected to Source.

What three items would you take with you on a deserted island?

Music, laptop, and my kitty

What is your favorite part about teaching at CCB?

The students are well trained and dedicated.

David Taylor’s Biography

David Taylor has been professionally involved in the Colorado dance community for the past forty-eight years. During the course of a twelve-year dance career, he began choreographing in 1976, and since then has created well over 100 original works. In 1979, he founded the David Taylor Dance Theatre, which for thirty-two years was recognized as one of the Rocky Mountain region’s most acclaimed dance organizations, and Denver’s original contemporary ballet company. Mr. Taylor has received three National Endowment for the Arts grant awards along with the City and County of Denver’s first Individual Artist Fellowship award for dance, and in March of 1997, he and his company were proud recipients of the State of Colorado’s Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. He has been commissioned to create ballets for Opera Colorado, the Colorado Symphony, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Museum of Outdoor Arts and the Up Close and Musical Ensemble, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Colorado Wind Ensemble, and for the Dayton Ballet in Ohio. He has also staged works for the Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet, the Lone Star Ballet of Amarillo, Texas, Western Wyoming Community College, Colorado Mesa University and the Canyon Concert Ballet and his original and innovative productions of “The Nutcracker” and “Rainforest” garnered national critical recognition and were booked extensively across the United States for twenty years. Mr. Taylor has additionally served as a Board member for the Mayor’s Commission on Cultural Affairs, as the Vice President for the Colorado Dance Alliance, as a peer panel member for the Colorado Council on the Arts, and in 2008 received the Carson-Brierly Dance Library’s prestigious “Living Legends of Dance” Award.

Currently, Mr. Taylor serves as the Artistic Director and upper level ballet program faculty member for Denver Ballet Theatre where he teaches ballet technique, pas de deux, pointe, variations and dance history. His extensive background also includes a longtime involvement with metaphysical studies, sacred dance and ritual. In 2009 he founded the Zikr Dance Ensemble, a unique professional company that offers a spectrum of works that are based on transcendent dance rituals from many different ancient world cultures throughout history along with original and contemporary dance/theatre realizations. Zikr employs some of the finest ballet-trained dancers from numerous companies along the Front Range and in 2017, initiated as well what is now a very successful Apprentice Program. The company has received unanimous critical acclaim and standing ovations over the past ten years and besides presenting an annual season in the Denver metro area, tours extensively throughout the United States.

Canyon Concert Ballet currently has two Jazz 1 classes, taught by Ms Cassie and Ms Jacqueline. Learn more about this fun dance class!

Class Description: Students will be exposed to basic jazz dance technique and its fundamentals. This class will include the following structure: a warm up (body isolations, stretching, proper posture, and lower body movements). Across the floor will introduce students to jazz step sequences and traveling movements that will build their dance vocabulary. At the end of class students will learn a short piece of choreography to build on their memorization and performing skills. This is a 2 year level and is equivalent to students in Ballet 3.

What is your favorite part about this class?

Ms Cassie: My favorite part of this class is being able to loosen up and expose dancers to express a more fun, sassy attitude while dancing.

Which song is your favorite to dance to in this class?

Ms Cassie: My favorite song in my Jazz 1 playlist is San Francisco by The Mogli’s because it is upbeat yet lighthearted.

How long have you been teaching dance?

Ms Cassie: I began as a teachers assistant in high school and have been teaching my own classes for almost a year now.

Anything else you’d like people to know about this class?

Ms Cassie: I would like people to know that jazz is an amazing style of dance for self-expression and freedom while also building technique, strength, and flexibility! Whenever I took jazz at my studio when I was younger a more confident version of myself came out which was very important being that I was very shy and I hope I can bring that out in my students as well.

Jazz 1 happens Tuesdays at 4:30pm at the Conifer Studio with Ms Jacqueline and Wednesdays at 4:30pm at the Harmony Studio with Ms Cassie. Register for Jazz 1 class today!

We have an opportunity to take master classes from Kelly Ireland on Sunday, October 21st. At Canyon Concert Ballet we continue to strive to bring you both renowned and up and coming artists to nurture your study and growth of dance. Ms. Ireland is traveling across the US doing dance research and she is delighting us with stopping in Fort Collins.

To ensure we have enough dancers for class we will have a Pre- Registration. We will offer an Advance 2 hour master class for levels 7+ for $20 and an Intermediate 1.5 hour master class for levels 5 & 6 for $15. To pre-register please email info-at-ccballet.org with your name and informing us that you would like attend. A $10 charge will be added to your account to hold your spot and that will go towards the full amount of class. If we are low in numbers the $10 hold fee will be taken off your account.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

2:30- 4:30pm Advance Level 7+

4:30-6:00pm Intermediate Levels 5 & 6

About Kelly Ireland

Kelly Ireland is a dancer, choreographer, and dance educator originally from Slippery Rock, PA and is now living and working in New York City. She attended Florida State University beginning in 2014 where she performed the works of choreographers including Gwen Welliver and Rick McCullough, assisted the work of MFA candidate Heather Boni, and choreographed her own work within the School of Dance. Ireland studied abroad in France with the school of Dance and studied abroad in Switzerland with the School of Hospitality and spent a year dancing in the FSU High Flying Circus. She graduated with her BFA in Dance and a minor in Hospitality in the Fall of 2016.

Upon graduation she taught at local studios in her spare time before moving back to Florida to pursue an internship within the hospitality field. A year ago, she moved to New York City to continue pursuing a career in dance where she has been taking class, assistant teaching, and interning for Artichoke Dance Company. She is spending several months this fall traveling to different cities across the United States conducting research and generating choreography for future projects of her own while teaching at studios in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, Colorado, Oregon, and beyond.

Sarah grew up dancing at the school of the Washington Ballet and continued with ballet and other genres at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Following college, she performed with 4M Dance in San Francisco and Oakland, California. She returned to school to earn a M.Ed. degree in Early Childhood Education and later trained in Anne Green-Gilbert’s methodology of dance instruction at the Creative Dance Center in Seattle. She joined the CCB staff in 2015, focusing on dance with toddlers & parents together and the Young Dancer’s Program. Sarah was honored to attend the CSU Carl S. Bimson Dance/Movement Education Seminar for Colorado K-12 Educators during the summers of 2016-17. Sarah works as a teacher at First United Methodist Cooperative Preschool in addition to being a dance educator.

Ms Sarah teaches Move with Me on Tuesdays at 10am and Saturdays at 9:30am, as well as Creative Movement on Saturdays at 10:30am and Pre-Ballet 1 on Saturdays at 11:15am.

Here are some fun questions we asked Ms Sarah to get to know her a little better:

What is your proudest accomplishment?

Educating young people to be compassionate and empathetic through being a teacher and parent.

What is your favorite book? How about movie?

My favorite book is Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen.
My favorite movie is Singin’ In The Rain.

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